TOBACCO WORKERS
I am Christos Dimopoulos, assistant of
Portokaloglou died in 1933. He did not live
Konrad von Vilas. In 1930 I built next to
to see the Bulgarian occupation forces
the Portokaloglou factory a mansion for
seizing the tobacco factories in 1941. He
Pamboukas, the manager of the American
did not live to see how Nazi Germany
tobacco company Standard Ltd. The double
buried the Greek tobacco economy by
pear-shaped staircase, I designed in the
confiscating the last 22 tons.
center of the mansion, is one of the favorite
themes of Vilas. One year later Standard
Ltd. went bankrupt. Pamboukas sold the
mansion to the Health and Insurance Fund
of the Tobacco Workers,
which was established in
1925. The Fund used the
building to host offices and a
First Aid Station. Although
tobacco workers build the
b a s i s o f t h e t o b a c c o
economy, their condition is
deplorable. Low wages and
job insecurity are torturing
them, tuberculosis is killing
t h e m . To s u p p o r t t h e
unemployed, the Fund abolished free
access to the profession.
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